A True Good Beautiful Life

This Week's Special Guest Is . . .

Sarah Kwilinski

Sarah Kwilinski is a Founding Director and President of Sundial Classical Farmstead, a homeschool resource program located in Michigan.

She is a certified special education teacher with a Masters of Arts in Classical Teaching from the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University. Her interest in high-quality pedagogy and curricula led her to the Classical Education renewal movement. She admires Charlotte Mason and Maria Montessori and seeks to create a classroom where both would feel at home. Sarah also serves as the Director of Programs for Sundial staff.

Most recently, Sarah presented a case study on the design of Sundial at the National Symposium for Classical Education in Phoenix, AZ.

She lives in East Lansing, MI.

On This Week's Episode

Show Notes

Nestled amongst nature and beauty, happy children are busy learning and creating. This magical place is Sundial Classical Farmstead, located in South Lansing, Michigan, and is the creation of Sarah Kwilinski, my guest on today's podcast. She has inspiring ideas and strategies to create a lovely space for anyone, even those with special needs, to be seen and to flourish.

Some of the things we talk about during our TRUE segment are the use of audio books, short lessons to avoid fatigue, setting up multi-age ability-based instructional groups, practicing talking less (ie. Masterly Inactivity), engaging in Picture Study and Narration to help develop the muscle of attention, and the benefits of inviting parents into the classroom. In our segment on the GOOD, Sarah shares about how she teaches Hospitality in the classroom and how that helps develop ideal relationships amongst people.

In our last segment on the BEAUTIFUL, Sarah explains how their program engages with the Fine, Common, and Performing Arts to round out an excellent Classical Liberal Arts program.

Some of our favorite resources are:

"Memories of a PNEU Education" essay by Christine Verspaandonk
Mind to Mind: An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason and Karen Glass

Commonplace Quotes

"Give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information." - Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Application

How can you divide your students up so that they can get more individualized attention with people with their shared abilities? Is the environment causing some problems? What steps can you take to help your students thrive?
Contemplate and put into practice how your classroom exhibits Hospitality, in general ways as well as serving as a "Hospital" and a "Hotel."
What Fine, Common, and Performing Arts can you add to your students' life experiences? Can you involve the parents perhaps?